Cousins, Polo, McGuane Out, Connors Gone For 8

RICHMOND FOOTBALL CLUB STATEMENT:
Monday April 12, 2010

As a result of the investigation undertaken today by the Richmond Football Club into player misbehaviour at the team hotel in Sydney on Sunday morning, the following sanctions and penalties have been handed down by the Club, in consultation with the leadership group.

Daniel Connors has been suspended for eight weeks for unsociable behaviour, which included being intoxicated. Connors will not be permitted to train at the club for the first six weeks of his suspension. As part of this sanction he will be attending alcohol counselling once a week for an indefinite period.

Luke McGuane, Dean Polo and Ben Cousins have all been suspended for one week. While not intoxicated, these players were deemed to have not acted responsibly or in a manner expected of them by the Club.

“The Richmond Football Club will not tolerate the behaviour shown by these players, and has acted accordingly,” Richmond General Manager of Football Craig Cameron said.

“These actions go against all the values that we set for ourselves as a club,” Cameron said.

Richmond CEO Brendon Gale said: “Every player at this club needs to fully understand the responsibility that goes with pulling on the yellow and black jumper.”

Daniel Connors said: “I am extremely disappointed in my actions and I regret the stupid decisions I made on the night. I apologise to all Richmond members and supporters, my team mates, club officials and the guests at the Intercontinental Hotel, who were subjected to my behaviour.”

“Over the next few weeks I will be doing everything I can to win back the respect of those who I have let down,” he said.

“This has been a massive wake up call for me and I accept that I have a problem with alcohol which I need to address,” Connors said.

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Cousins A Chance Next Week

Popular $352k midfielder Ben Cousins is a chance to return for Richmond in Round Three.

Cousins, owned by over 12,000 DT coaches, missed the Tigers loss against the Bulldogs on Sunday.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said: “He's a possibility, he's got to get through training and we'll see how he goes from there.”

$374k midfielder Nathan Foley isn't too far away either after long-term injury.

Hardwick said: “Possibly, we've just got to monitor his training. We're not putting a timeline on Nathan, we don't want to rush him. He's an important player to us.”

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Tigers To Continue With Youth

There doesn't seem to be an AFL recall in sight for Richmond's veterans after Tigers caretaker coach Jade Rawlings claimed he'll continue with youth.

The likes of Joel Bowden, Mark Coughlan and Troy Simmonds, all relatively popular DT players, are currently out of favour at Punt Road.

And Rawlings told the media after Richmond's loss to Adelaide on Saturday night, "Our young guys were terrific so why would we change it?

"We nearly won a game against a very good football side with a couple of blokes down, so we will stick to our criteria with our selection about who's in form, who's prepared to do what we want, follow instructions and we'll keep going down that path."

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Richo Hopeful For Round 19

2008's DreamTeam must-have Matthew Richardson has told the media he's hoping to return to AFL footy for Round 19.

The $375k midfield/forward, started the season off in fine style with four +100 scores before being decked by a hamstring tendon injury in Round 6.

"I reckon I'm ahead of schedule with my rehab. Realistically, if I got a month of football in at the end of the year, that would be a pretty good case," said Richardson.

Despite being out injured for so long, almost 20,000 DT coaches still have big 'Richo' on board, so positive news of his rehab will be welcome for many.

Also, as reported here earlier today, it has been confirmed the Tigers will give a senior AFL debut to youngster Tyrone Vickery this weekend. Vickery, Richmond's first pick in the 2008 AFL Draft, is a ruckman priced at $122k.

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